


Mama's Boys

by SloanGreyMercyDeath



Series: December 2020 [9]
Category: Criminal Minds (US TV)
Genre: F/F, cookies and praise
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-27
Updated: 2020-12-27
Packaged: 2021-03-11 02:48:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,160
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28367907
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SloanGreyMercyDeath/pseuds/SloanGreyMercyDeath
Summary: Day 9: random act of kindness
Relationships: Jennifer "JJ" Jareau/Emily Prentiss
Series: December 2020 [9]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2036989
Comments: 2
Kudos: 58





	Mama's Boys

Emily’s cookies turned out amazing and she invited the team over to try them. Everyone had responded to her message in the group chat with skepticism, but they’d agreed to come over. Well, Hotch had declined, but everyone else was willing to celebrate Emily’s victory.

Spencer was lounging on the couch beside JJ, entertaining Henry with his weirdly flexible face. Beside the tree, Tara and Penelope sat on the floor, playing poker and betting with Andes Mints. Rossi wandered into the kitchen, quietly approaching Emily from behind.

The triumphant baker was putting the snickerdoodles onto a plate, making sure they were displayed to full effect. She heard the tap of Rossi’s shoes on the tile floor and glanced over her shoulder. They smiled at each other.

“Prentiss. Prentiss. Prentiss.” Rossi sighed, swirling the Scotch in his glass. “Who are we going to tease now that you’ve proven yourself to be capable?”

Emily scoffed, rolling her eyes. “No one?”

“Not an option.”

She focused on her presentation again, knowing that it had to be good in order to convince the team to try them. They were here out of love for her and she was going to knock their socks off with her amazing cookies. They wouldn’t know what hit them.

“It looks good,” Rossi said, leaning a hip on the counter beside her. “You did good.”

Raising her eyebrows, she put the last few cookies onto her big, fancy plate. “Rossi. I’m not five. I just made cookies. It’s not rocket science.”

He sipped his drink, looking at her thoughtfully over the edge of the glass. Putting the glass down, he patted her shoulder. “I don’t just mean the cookies.”

“What?”

“I just mean that you’ve come a long way since you joined the team.” He smiled kindly. “I’m happy that you’ve found a way to let people in. Everyone showed up just to try your cookies. They know how much this means to you, even if you think it’s just cookies.”

Tears pricked at the corner of Emily’s eyes and she turned away to whip them quickly. She hadn’t expected him to say something that nice. It was also surprising how much it had affected her because she was a big, tough FBI agent. Emily knew she was better than tears, but it was really touching to have the man who’d become a father figure to her notice how hard she’d worked.

“Thanks,” she muttered, giving him a wobbly smile. “It means a lot.”

“I mean, Hotch isn’t here…” he joked, winking.

Emily laughed loudly, nodding and rolling her eyes. “Yeah, well. He’s not even on the team anymore, so who cares?”

“Exactly!” Rossi picked his glass up again and nodded toward the living room. “Let’s go show those kids what you’ve got.”

Emily picked the plate up with a grin, following him to the living room. When they rounded the corner, the team cheered. Penelope and Tara put their cards down and crawled to the coffee table, ready for their treats. Carefully, Emily put the plate down in the space that JJ had cleared for her.

Dropping heavily onto the couch beside JJ, she kissed her wife on the cheek and then took Henry from her. He babbled happily, reaching for the cookies. She caught his hands with her own, bouncing him and keeping him away from all the sugar.

Her team hummed, looking at her with wide eyes. They kept any snarky comments to themselves, choosing to be nice and just eat Emily’s cookies. As they ate them, they hummed happily.

“Wow!” Penelope said, her lips covered in sugar. “This is amazing! I love them!”

Tara hummed in agreement. “These are so good. We’ll stop making fun of you.”

“Oh, thank god,” Emily laughed. She crossed her eyes at Henry. “Your Mama is a grown-up, baby! You’d never be mean to me, right?”

JJ snorted, resting her head on Emily’s shoulder. “He’s gonna be such a Mama’s boy.”

Spencer frowned, swallowing his cookie. “He doesn’t have a choice, does he? He only has Mamas. What other type of boy would he be?”

“Oh!” JJ gasped, sitting up again. “That reminds me…” She pointed to a dark brown ottoman. “Spencer, will you grab the envelope that’s in there?”

He did, tugging it toward himself and lifting the lid. The envelope in question was thin with ‘SPENCER’ written in swirling handwriting on the front. Spence closed the ottoman again and turned toward JJ.

“What is it?” he asked.

Emily rolled her eyes. “Open it, dummy. It’s for you. An early gift.”

Rossi, Tara, and Penelope ate more cookies as they watched Spencer open his present. He pulled out a plane ticket. Everyone looked toward Emily and JJ to find out where the destination was.

“It’s a ticket to Vegas,” JJ told him quietly. She rested her hand on his arm, smiling. “I gave you the next week off, so you can go visit your mom.”

He grinned at her, throwing his long arms around her and forcing Emily to lean back or get hit. “Thank you!”

“Being best friends with the Unit Chief has its perks,” Tara laughed. “JJ, I want a week off, too.”

Narrowing her eyes at Tara over Spencer’s shoulder, JJ stuck her tongue out. “No way. One team member gone at a time.” 

Spencer pulled away and leaned around JJ to grin at Emily, too. “I’ll bring back a souvenir.”

“You’d better,” the black-haired woman said. “We’re not going to have fun in Vegas for a long time. I need something shiny to hold me over, and Henry needs a gift from his uncle Spencer.”

JJ smiled as he took another cookie from Emily’s plate, happy that he was happy. She’d been    
Unit Chief since Hotch left and this was the first time she’d been able to do something fun with the position. Mostly, it was paperwork and having to stay out of the field. It was good because of Henry, but annoying for the profiler in her.

Still, times like this made it all worth it. It was great to have her family around her, her wife and son beside her, and the rest of their lives ahead. Emily had done an amazing job with the cookies, which made JJ feel a lot better. She really didn’t think Emily was useless or bad at things, but she was glad they’d talk about it. 

Even after years together, there were still things that they needed to talk about. Maybe the new conversations were  _ because  _ they’d been together for so long. Either way, JJ knew that they were better because of it.

A hand on her shoulder startled her and she turned to see Emily smiling. Emily pulled her hair away, taking Henry’s hands and tilting her head.

“Mama!” Emily said, pretending to be Henry. She moved his hands dramatically. “Happy December 9th!”

“Oh,  _ thank you _ , Henry!” JJ replied, playing along. “Happy 16 days until Christmas!”


End file.
